~ Researching Russell Co, Kentucky

Author Archives: lvonlanken

OK, call me a rebel, but I am not part of the “digitize it all and get rid of all paper” camp. I do have 95% of my stuff digitized, but I love my paper copies – usually kept in binders – and here are the Top 10 reasons why…

1) Margins!!!! I love writing in the margins! Relationship notes and clarification of difficult to read words are my most common notations. In the bottom margin, I write the location and year that the document was recorded. Even though this CAN be done on digital records, I rarely have the time to do each document at the time it’s being scanned. At the Allen County Public Library, printouts from the microfilm scanners are free. Scanning is slow, depending on the resolution I’ve chosen, so I can print in sets of 5 and then write basic notes in the margins while the next set of records are being scanned.

2) Re-printable!!! Draw on a map then discover a new document that makes you rethink a location? Reprint the map! I have a chronological set of notes for every family in my tree. One entry might say something like “1853 – Russell County tax lists – 100 acres” with a footnote citation. I try to include a snapshot of the portion of the document that is the source as well so I don’t have full versions of everything printed – but I could find it on my computer if I want to look at the entire page. I write ALL OVER these notes! Sometimes, it’s a note about something I’d like to remember to add. Sometimes, it’s a chart of the ages of all the people in that family at that point in time or a timeline of events for a different family in the same area. I have lists of FHL films that I’d like to order for a certain time period. But mostly, questions, questions, QUESTIONS! I can look at a tax record and notice that I’m not seeing all of the family and write a note to look for them and where I think they might be. I use different colors and draw clouds around things to help them stand out, but I write EVERYTHING I can think of because I know I can update the notes and print them again! Each time I go through a set of notes like this, I use a different color and indicate the date at the top. That way, I can update things in my digital file, but not re-print until I have a significant amount of new data in the file.

3) Post-it Notes!!!! Notes to myself about next steps, notes telling when I had to stop before getting everything I wanted, questions the document brings to mind, hypotheses about neighbors, mini-family tree charts to show how people are related, thoughts about things to put in my research plan for my next research trip, basically anything that pops into my head as I’m working that I don’t necessarily need to have permanently written on the record. Try sticking a post-it note to a digital file!

4) Highlighters!!! Sometimes, documents are either very full of names or very hard to read. If I have the time to really analyze a document and I find the names I’m looking for, I love to highlight them so it isn’t as hard the next time. (Then, I add the notes in the margins about who is a brother-in-law or neighbor, etc.)

5) An entire blank sheet of paper on the back of each document!!!! Sometimes, I write a “letter” to myself with a narrative of what’s happening or questions that the document brings to mind. Obviously, writing the source of the document including where I am, the date and the book or film that I’m looking at always goes on the back. (How many times have a scanned multiple pages from a tax book or court order book and then not been able to rename the files right away! Later, I look in the folder and wonder about dates or the county or whatever – especially if I’m doing “mindless” work such as scanning every page of a tax book for a specific year.) Every page looks the same, so keeping track of what is what is very important. But as I’m working, I can write source citations on the back MUCH faster than renaming files and adding source citations to the file properties. I can also keep longer notes about what a particular document means to my research, if desired, especially if the information in this document fits in well with another document. I also like to write notes to myself about other people that I looked for in the book/record that were not included. Those things are later included in my research log, but sometimes, certain information doesn’t jump out at me in log format.

Another thing I like to indicate on the back is whether or not I did any clean-up work in PhotoShop. So often, there is bleed through of ink from the pages before or after the page I’ve printed from microfilm and it’s an easy fix to take those out. But I like to indicate what I did so I know that the copy I am looking at is not the original (although I always keep both digital files).

Finally, if I have a print out of a digital file that I have transcribed, it’s easy to put the print out in the printer and put the transcription on the back. Again, margins for notes and diagrams, etc!

6) Sorting!!!! I like to write the date for each page in the lower right hand corner. With that, I can put pages in chronological order. Then, as I flip through a file (usually in a binder), it’s almost like reading a story of the person’s life. I love having my things filed chronologically to help me come up with a timeline of locations so that I’m not wasting time looking at a record set for a time period when the family wasn’t even in the area. I can also decide to re-organize my pages by source type to find blanks in my research. For example, I can have a stack for tax records, census records, birth/death records, etc. If I have a family with 8 children, but I only have death records for 6 of them, then I know that’s something to add to my “to do” list.

I will admit that I am so tied to having everything in chronological order, every digital document that I have has the year at the beginning of the name. For example “1840 Welcome Stephens will”.

7) We’ve all heard “out of sight, out of mind”. Well, I get just the opposite by turning pages in a binder! As I flip through an ancestor’s binder, I know immediately what I have and when there are missing chunks in my research. Or I see a document that I forgot that I had! Flipping through a binder is MUCH faster than finding and opening multiple files on my hard drive. Often, when I flip through a binder, questions and connections come to mind that I would never think of just by looking at a list of documents that I have scanned.

8) Maps, maps, maps – I love to include period relevant maps within my chronologically arranged binder. What county is next door? How close to the county/state line did my ancestor live? For ancestors who lived in different counties, how far apart were they? Did my ancestor have to go across a river to get to the county courthouse? Did the county boundary line change between records? All kinds of maps from state to county to plat maps, they all go in the binder! And as I’ve mentioned before, I can write all over these maps or highlight the area where my ancestors were.

9) Portable! Have to go to the doctor or dentist office? Have some time in the car before soccer practice is over? Going for a trip in a car or plane? Bring along a folder or a binder! Much easier to open in an office or car/plane than a computer! (And don’t forget the color pens and highlighters!) Those are the times that I’m forced to really think about what I have and what I’d like to look for next because I don’t have a computer in front of me to jump into databases. I can take a file to school on test days and write all over it while students are working.

10) Better comprehension! Call me strange, but I comprehend information better on paper than on my computer screen. Imagine my guilt over this considering that I am the technology trainer at my school! For the life of me, I don’t understand it, but I process information and remember it better when I’m reading from paper compared to my computer screen.

So there it is! I love my computer and my digital files, but I could NOT do my genealogy research without my paper copies! And it feels good to confess that to you all!

I spent the morning at the library, but the film I was hoping to see had not arrived yet, so I spent time with some tax records. Now I’m home again and a storm is brewing outside, so I thought I’d do some “thinking out-loud” to process information that I already have before I start looking for new stuff and to take my mind off the weather.

Polly Stephens is a mystery for me. Here’s what I know and what I think it may mean.

Mary “Polly” Stephens was the daughter of Welcome and Nancy Stephens. Polly was one of the heirs listed in Welcome’s estate settlement in 1840.

Based on ages listed in census records, Polly was born around 1807 in Kentucky. There is a tombstone for a Polly Stephens in a cemetery with several other Stephens family members with the dates 1807 – 1894. So did Polly Stephens marry a Stephens? There are many cousin-cousin marriages in this family, so that doesn’t seem unlikely. Going on this assumption, I’m trying to figure out who the spouse would be.

@1807 – birth of Mary “Polly” Stephens

1830 – birth of Elizabeth Stephens listed with Polly in 1850 census. Polly would be around 23 years old. This may not have been Polly’s first child, so I’d begin looking for a marriage around 1825.

1837 – Today’s trip to the library revealed a court record from the January Term, 1837 in which George F. Harris appeared to answer a charge of bastardy made by Polly Stephens, but Polly did not appear as requested. Therefore, no action was taken against George. To read about bastardy laws during this time, click here. Who was George Harris? He was Polly’s cousin, son of Welcome’s sister, Dorcas. She would have been 30 years old and he would have been 34.

1838 – I see a Polly Stephens with no land listed in the Russell County tax records. She is listed 2 lines above her father, Welcome. When I go back to the library, I will look at previous years to see when she appears (and hopefully, to see who disappears as a potential spouse!) After more research, I see that she was first listed in 1838. She is listed again in 1840 – 1846 now through 1855 (the last year that I checked this morning at the library)

1840 – Polly is not listed in the 1840 census for Russell County although she is listed in the tax records. I will take a look at family members to see if someone might have an “extra” female of the right age living in the household.

1843 – birth of Lucy Stephens – who I believe may be the daughter of Polly. According to Lucy’s son’s birth record, Lucy was born in Russell County.

1847 – birth of Andy Stephens listed with Polly in 1850 census. Polly would be about 40 years old.

I searched for additional court records during this time for Polly and found none in Russell County.

1850 – Mary Stephens (age 43) is listed in the Adair County (Russell County’s next door county) census with Elizabeth (age 19), Lucy (age 7) and AJ (age 3). Mary lives next door to Sherwood Stephens, her brother. Originally, this is the listing that made me think that Mary “Polly” was the mother of Lucy. As I think about the tax lists I was looking at this morning, I’m thinking that perhaps Lucy and AJ could be the children of a family member. If they ARE her children, (and assuming she wasn’t a “loose” woman, which perhaps was too hasty with my new information!) then she would have had a husband in 1846. Why would she be listed in the tax records of that time if she had a spouse? I should look at guardian records for a clue.

I’m working through my “Stephens File” and I’ve decided to transcribe documents that I’ve scanned or downloaded, but not really examined. At this point, I’m looking for clues in collateral lines that will help me with my direct line, but I thought I’d go ahead and put the transcription on my blog in case it is helpful to anyone else.

This William Stephens (1750 – 1829) was the step-brother of my Welcome Stephens (@1780-1840). Both men died in Russell County, Kentucky. The will can be found on FamilySearch here. Directly after the will is the renunciation from William’s wife Anna (Susannah Fox) who did not feel she was being adequately provided for.

1st, I, William Stephenssenr am old and in a low state of health, but in my reasonable senses thank God for it. I do hereby make my last will and testament in manner and form following, that is to say

2nd, I do give my son William Stephens junr all my blacksmiths tools

3rd, I also give to my son Stephen An Stephens my three year old mare, biggest bed and furniture and still,

4th, I give to Anny Wilson daughter of Anny Wilson deceased all the money that her father Moses Wilson is owing me.

5th, I give to my daughter Lishey Hampton all that is in her hands, by her paying ten dollars in work to supporting my old wife

6th, I give to my grandson Jordan Hampton my gun. I also give to my granddaughter Hester Hampton a small bed and furniture (interlined before signed)

8th, I give to my grandson William An Stephens all my shoe making tools, hand saw, drawing knife augers pan handle and a note that said a Stephens is owing me

9th, I give to my two sons (to wit) William Stephens junr and Stephen An Stephens all my irons and iron tools except there above mentioned to be equally divided between them two. I do give all the above mentioned to them to hold forever. As for all my daughters except those above mentioned is received their full part of my estate (interlined before signed) I do also leave all my personal estate home hold and kitchen furniture money in hand and all that is owing except that above mentioned to the support of my wife after my just debts and funeral charges is paid. I leave my son William Stephens a guardian for my wife and to sell all the property that she don’t need at present and keep the money for her use as she needs and at the decease of my wife if any things remains to be equally divided between William Stephens my son and Stephen An Stephens my son, and Obed Stephens and to be enjoyed by them forever, as hereunto I have set my hand and affixed my seal this December 26th 1828 signed sealed and delivered and for the last will and testament of the above named William Stephens in the presence of us Jacob Petitjohn, Moses Wilson (it would seem that this is William’s son-in-law, mentioned above), David Roach

At a county court began and held for the county of Russell at the courthouse in the town of Jamestown on Monday the 19th of January 1829. The last will and testament of William Stephens deceased was produced in court and proven by the oaths of Jacob Petitjohn and Moses Wilson subscribing witness thereto and ordered to be recorded.

To the county court of Russell County, I Anna Stephens widow and relict of William Stephens deceased, not being satisfied with the provisions made for me by the will of my late husband, do by these presents declare that I will not take or accept the provisions made for me by such will or any part thereof and hereby renounce all benefit which I might claim by said will witness my hand and seal this 19th day of January 1829. Witness: George F. Harris, John Ard (George Harris was the son of Dorcas Stephens Harris, William’s sister. John Ard was the son-in-law of William’s brother, Welcome)

At a county court began and held for the county of Russell at the courthouse in the town of Jamestown on Monday the 19th day of January, 1829. This is a renunciation of Anna Stephens widow and relict of William Stephens deceased, to the provisions made her in his last will and testament, was produced in court and proven by the oaths of John Ard and George Harris and ordered to be recorded.

Summer is here and school is out! I thought that I would jump right back into my genealogy research, but I am having a surprisingly difficult time! Where to begin? What do I want to work on first?

I’m too easily distracted and can’t seem to stay on track. I thought I’d take my binder and pick a decade for the Welcome/William/Andrew Stephens families and pick 1 think to try to look for, but as I go through my notes, I keep “rabbit trailing” and end up with nothing done at all. So I thought that perhaps I could put some thoughts into the blog to try to keep myself on track as I make a plan.

I’ve decided that I’m going to try to pinpoint the year that Andrew and his father William left Alabama. What I have:

1850 – William, his wife Dorothy and 5 children – including Andrew – live in Marion County, Alabama in District 14. Living next door to the family is Jacob Wigginton and family. I will begin to follow this family closely as I believe they are related to Dorothy. (William Stephens and Jacob Wigginton were listed on consecutive pages in the 1840 Tishomingo County, Mississippi census.)

William is also listed in the 1850 Alabama State Census. There are several Wigginton families listed as well, but no Jacob. There is at least 1 Wigginton that I see living near William who was not listed in the search results, so I need to spend more time here. NOTE: there are 2 families with a head of household named William Stephens.

1855 – Alabama conducted a state census. There are no records for Marion County, but there are for Franklin County (where William and Andrew are found in 1860) but William’s family is not found.

1860 – Jacob Wigginton (age 67) lives with the James Wigginton (age 26) family (father?) in Marion County, Alabama

William Stephens – now lives in Franklin County (1 county north of Marion County) and Andrew and his small family are living with him.

Andrew (son of William) is listed a 2nd time in Franklin County living next door to Polly Steavens who I believe may be Lucy Stephen’s mother as well as Andrew’s aunt. (In 1880, Aunt Pollie, age 70, lives with Andrew and Lucy (age 36))

Why would Andrew and his family go from Ripley Co, Missouri to Franklin Co, Alabama to Metcalfe Co, Kentucky within 2-3 years? According to the Alabama Pioneers website, there was a drought in 1860 in Alabama – could this be the reason for the move?

1861 – Andrew and Lucy’s first child, Nancy, dies in June in Metcalfe Co, Kentucky and a 2nd child – William Dudley – is born in October. (Andrew’s uncle – Sherwood – settled in Metcalfe Co between 1850 and 1860)

1866 – Andrew and Lucy Stephens “of Russell County” give evidence to birth of a nephew’s children for a widow’s pension.

1868 – Russell Co land sale between Andrew Stephens and William Hopper.

1870 – William Stephens is listed in the Federal Census in Russell Co, Kentucky. I cannot find Andrew in any 1870 census. Clearly, Andrew should be in Russell County by now.

1876 – Russell County land sale between AJ Stephens and Wesley Flanagan and AJ Stephens and GC Bennett.

Conclusion: It appears that Andrew and Lucy Stephens may have moved to Russell County around 1865. I cannot pinpoint when William Stephens arrived

Next Step: There are no microfilm records for Marion or Franklin County, Alabama for the correct time period to determine when they may have left. The ACPL has microfilm for Russell County tax records from 1826 – 1856 and Andrew does not appear here. I will order tax records for 1856-1874 from the FHL to see if I can find when Andrew appears in Russell County. There is a book for Franklin County, Alabama – Old land records of Franklin County, Alabama / Margaret Matthews Cowart. – at the ACPL that I will look at for clues as well.

I’ve been researching my Stephens family line for years. And I LOVE my notes for each generation! My notes are in timeline format and I enter every single thing I can find including “probable” events such as births that I don’t have an exact date for. My source citations in these notes are as complete as anything that I have and are MUCH easier for me to keep up to date than within my genealogy software. I include maps and cropped images of the records that I’ve found within the notes so I don’t have to dig through files unless I need to see the full page. I make colorized notes to myself along the edge with text boxes around them to make them stand out. In these notes to myself, I include ideas of books to look at when I go to the library, questions as to why something might be happening or why I think my records might have a mistake. For example, I may have a clue to a birth location from someone else researching my family, but when I put it in the notes, the location does not match the proven location of the parent. I also include small images of simplified group sheets with the ages of each person at that time period to help me keep the people straight in my mind. By including the ages at that time, it helps me see if a son is old enough to be found in the tax records or if he is too young to be married. If a mother and father have passed away, but still have young children, where are the children living? These are all questions that I would put along the edges of my notes.

But I still get confused when I have to compare the notes from one generation to another generation. For example, I can’t find Andrew Stephens in the 1870 census. So I wanted to look at Andrew’s father’s notes as well as Andrew’s children’s notes to see where THEY were in 1870 to see if Andrew was nearby. When that didn’t work, I looked at Andrew’s siblings and their children. Now I’ve got people named the same thing in various locations and my brain just has a hard time keeping it all straight. (I blame this on the medication that I’m taking – and I’m sticking with that story!)

So, during the ride home from Spring Break, I decided to combine all of the notes from my Stephens research into one file. I took each individual’s records and made the text for each a different color. Then, I copied and pasted them all into one file while still keeping everything in chronological order. I’ll still keep my original notes, but by combining them all, I’m hoping to see better patterns in locations and records available. But this new document became QUITE long – beginning with 1715 and continuing through 1928, so I decided to put it in my binder with dividers for every decade. I REALLY like it! In 10 year time periods, I can make some nice maps of the changing county boundaries to get a better idea of where to look for records – and what counties are nearby at that time. It’s much easier to keep track of where each person is that I’m tracking by having a US map with a pin for each person’s locations. And gaps in records become much more evident. By having entire lifetimes in one document, it wasn’t giving me a realistic idea of how much time had gone by from one record to the next. Two pages could be 5 years or 30 years depending on how much information I’ve found.

I’ve decided on a 2 binder approach. One binder has my notes and the appropriate source records all in chronological order. The other binder will be my “clues”. Printed emails, web sites, church histories and such go in the “clue binder” that I can have open side-by-side with my notes binder. This keeps all of my records in order while still having easy access to whatever I’ve found online that I want to follow up on. Group sheets for every family member – even siblings – will go in the Clue Binder. Each decade will have it’s own Research Plan. Before this, I’ve been creating Research Plans for each person, so the new Research Plans will deal with all of the people I’m tracking within that decade.

I’m looking forward to putting these binders together and adding records and hints. I think it will help me stay focused because the time period I’ll be researching will be shorter rather than looking for anything that matches an individual within his entire lifetime.

I was able to spend significant time on genealogy research this weekend, so I picked up my Stephens file, but couldn’t think of a new path of attack for my line. So I thought I’d spend some time trying to figure out why William Stephens spent many years in Alabama. As I’ve researched William’s father, Welcome, I could see no reason why William would be in Alabama. I thought it must have something to do with William’s wife, Dorothy Wigginton, who I have done zero research on.

I went to Ancestry to see if I could find Wiggintons near William’s family in the Alabama census records. How could I have never noticed that there was a Wigginton family living next door? And another Wigginton further down the page? I think I’ve been so focused on the Stephens surname and trying to find where they were in 1870 that I never took the time to look around. Rookie mistake! As I began to research these Wiggintons, I found that Ancestry has some very nice plat maps for the area. And that was the beginning of HOURS of researching land records! On Ancestry, I was able to get plat maps and land grant certificates. That reminded me to look at the BLM-GLO web site which helped me decipher that writing on the plat maps and helped me find some additional parcels of land that I hadn’t noticed before.

I was trying to find a map of the entire county with plat lines on it when I came across a GREAT site by the Alabama Secretary of State. The Government Records Inquiry System gives access to great scans of the Tract Books showing everyone who received a land grant within a specific township and range. It was a much easier way to see who the neighbors were than trying to read the tiny writing on the plat map! The site also has books of Field Notes, Land Patents, Deeds and Leases and lots of other books that I have not had time to look at.

This week-end (and today because we had a snow storm that cancelled school) was all about information gathering, and the days ahead will be spent analyzing! I’ve had issues in the past with finding records for 2 different men named William Stephens in the area, so I’m hoping that these records will help me to sort these men out!

I rushed home from school today to jump onto the Live Steaming from RootsTech.org and was thrilled to see that not only is it streaming live, but you can “rewind” to watch anything that’s been streaming for the day!

Ahhhhh…..snow day! Actually, “icy streets” day, but no matter – an unexpected day to work on genealogy! So I thought to myself, I will open my group sheets that are stored on my computer and change all of the citations that only say “Find-a-grave” to be actual, genealogically happy citations. And thus began my citation headache…

I decided to start with a specific group sheet that had all kinds of information for every name on the sheet – births, deaths, spouses, marriage dates, etc, but my citations tended to be things like: 1) ACPL 976.901 R91sh v. 1. or 2) Accd to William’s birth record or 3) Marriage Bonds book 6. CERTAINLY not complete citations! And what about the marriage dates that had no citations at all? Oy vey!

I decided that I would not work on any other group sheet until I entered proper citations for everything on this group sheet.

I began with burial citations since that was my original intention anyway. Because I took a trip to my county of research a few summers ago, I had many of my own images from cemeteries and such, so I cited those first and then moved on to Find-a-grave listings that I had not created myself. I did a Google search to see how others were citing Find-a-grave sites and could not find anything that didn’t refer to getting information from the image of the tombstone. I have quite a few ancestors who are listed in Find-a-grave, but do not have an image of the stone included. I decided on a citation format that was close to what I was seeing online and that would work well for me including linking the person’s name to the Find-a-grave listing so I could continue to check back for images at a later date with just a single click. There are some wonderful volunteers in Russell County who are posting images of obituaries and wedding announcements that have been delightful surprises and I am very grateful for that! I only wish that the name of the newspaper and date of publication were included, but someday, I’ll be able to make a trip to the area and find those myself and I’m thrilled with the information that they do contain.

Next came hours of re-researching. Quite a bit of information that I had came from a web site that no longer exists, so I was looking for print outs or other sites that the information may have been copied to. (Thank you RootsWeb!) If I didn’t already have a print-out, I made one today with the surnames that I research along with any information given on the source that the information had originally come from.

I then went to my Ancestry account to see if I had entered sources in the notes on there. Sadly, there were not many. When information came from microfilms, I searched the FamilySearch catalog to find the films that I had rented in the past to get the information needed for those records. When information came from books, I found the book on the WorldCat site, copied the Chicago style citation and added page numbers if I knew them and red notes to look them up if I didn’t.

Bottom line – I’ve spent 8 hours adding fresh information and working to update citations for ONE group sheet and my backside is pretty sore because I’ve spent every minute of that kicking myself in the rear for not doing this correctly from the beginning! BUT, I now have a group sheet (yes, only one) that is fully cited and I have LEARNED MY LESSON!

I made sure to get all of my work for Monday’s classes done yesterday so that I could have a genealogy afternoon today! But I’ve been in the process of creating a photo album scrapbook for my daughter’s graduation this May, so my genealogy files weren’t in any condition to do traditional research. Instead, I decided to work on creating a database in Excel of all of the Stephens gravestones in Russell County cemeteries. It’s pretty mindless work, so I can also “watch” marathons of my favorite HGTV shows while entering information. To keep from getting TOO overwhelmed with it, I decided to only enter information for people who were born before 1900.

I had a column for name, birth date, death date, parents, spouse and cemetery.

I LOVE creating databases like this in Excel because of the information that I see (REALLY see) for the first time based on sorting the database by columns. For example, when I sort by name, I can see all of the men named Andrew J. Stephens and fill in some of the blanks on the various groups sheets that I have. When I consider the location of the cemetery for each man, it helps me see which locations within the county are most likely to go with each man.

I can sort based on date of death and then see a list of people who died in the time frame in which death certificates are available on Ancestry to see if there are certificates that I haven’t discovered yet.

I can sort based on Parents and an incredibly complete group sheet appears before my eyes because of the links added to family stones and images of obituaries that volunteers have added. Often, I’ll find a spouse or child that I didn’t know about by doing this.

Or I can sort based on the Cemetery and begin to see possibilities for family connections that I didn’t think of before.

This sheet of the database is now part of a Stephens workbook that I’ve been working on over the years. Any time I’m at a standstill in research for one reason or another, I try to take one source – a specific book or website – and add all of the entries that I can whether I know they are related to my line or not. I have solved many puzzles with databases like this one! Now, if I have a date of death on the Cemetery sheet, but no parents, I can check to see if I have information on the Death Records worksheet to see if parents are listed there. I have worksheets for Birth Records, Marriage Records, Deeds, Taxes, Census Records, Military Info, Death Records and now – Cemeteries. And of course, every entry has the source included so I don’t have to go back to the actual book or website to add a record to my software database.

While it isn’t an earth shattering revelation for doing research, I’m always surprised by what I discover even though it was looking me directly in the face before!